As your singing improves, at some point you might become interested in auditioning for something. It could be for a play, a part in your church musical, a music school audition, or something else.

I bet the very thought probably makes you nervous, right? 🙂

That’s a completely normal reaction. After all, you have to get up in front of strangers who are judging you, and based on how well you perform, you’ll either ‘pass’ or ‘not pass’.

Here’s the thing: no matter how awesome you get at singing, auditions will ALWAYS be nerve racking. It’s just human nature to get freaked out when people are eyeballing you while you stand nakedly in front of them and pour your heart out!

But there are things you can do to slash your anxieties in half. The first and most important thing is to prepare like a mofo.

Preparation is your best friend. If you rehearse a song a bunch of times and really get it into your muscle memory, when the audition begins, you’ll be on autopilot.

You might be nervous, yeah, but who cares? Your body already knows the mechanics of performing this song and will do most of the work for you.

Another powerful tip is on the mindset side of things. Here it is: accept the possibility that you might NOT get the result you were hoping for. I want you to really think about it.

Imagine yourself failing miserably. Imagine the absolute worst thing that can happen during an audition. Your voice cracks, you forget the words, you pee your pants, everybody laughs at you. Or all of those things at the same time.

You see, everybody is telling you all the time ‘think positive, think positive.’ It’s like a cliche these days. But you can’t think positively if you’re doing it to avoid confronting your worst fears.

The technique I’m sharing with you is called ‘practical pessimism’, and when you actively think about the WORST thing that can happen, you realize that A) it’s so absurd it would never ever happen in a million years and b) it puts not passing a stupid little audition in perspective.

The mind is a powerful thing, and you’ve got to learn how to use it to your advantage if you want to get in front of people and sing.

Just a little background: I BOMBED my first audition for a music school. Really. It was ugly! I sang way out of tune and when the professor tested my music theory knowledge, I felt like he was speaking to me in Chinese. Actually, Chinese might’ve been more understandable!

He said “come back in a year.” I was bummed but I tried to focus on what to do NEXT to get closer to my goals. I told myself life has only one direction: forward.

So I spent a year taking voice lessons and practicing my ass off. I returned the next year to audition and I was SOOO nervous. I sang my heart out and they decided to let me in… on probation.

In other words, they saw a spark in me and wanted to give me a chance to earn it. Over the next few years, I outworked and out-practiced everybody around me and made such quick progress in my singing that the professor who originally auditioned me couldn’t believe it (he was also the choir director).

Anyway, the point isn’t to go on and on about myself, but rather to tell you that auditions go as planned sometimes, and sometimes they don’t. If you love singing and want to perform or study on a higher level, you should expect many setbacks.

They key is to take a deep breath and ask “what did I learn from this?” Then go practice, come back, and kick that audition’s butt!

As always, your comments, questions and concerns are welcomed:

vic@singoperanow.com

Ciao

Vic

p.s. One of the bonuses I include in the Sing Opera Now video lesson is a report on how to breeze through auditions. You can check it out here: